Brat!
by Insecticon
Summary: (Episode 3 of Transformers Prime: Invasion) A transformer from Velocitron lands on Earth, and all she knows about the Autobots and the Decepticons is that they were responsible for starting a war on her planet. It's hard to convince someone who hasn't lived through the Great War to pick a side now that they're on Earth - especially when she's a demanding, self-absorbed brat!
1. Chapter 1

"Are you sure this is gonna work?"

"We don't have much of a choice. It's this or we all wait for the sun to finish the war for us."

Roulette looked up at the face of her leader, her commander, her friend, and couldn't shake the sorrow filling her up inside. She was doing her best not to let the grief get to her – professional racers didn't let anything get in the way of crossing the finish line – but she knew it was not likely she'd see any of them again.

"Come on, little sis. Buck up. We'll all be leaving soon. This isn't the end you know; it's just being benched for a season," Override said, trying to encourage the young Velocitronian racer seated inside the skimmer shuttle.

"Promise me one thing, Commander," Roulette said, reaching up to take Override's hand and clasp it. "Promise me, somehow, you'll tell my sister what happened. Where I went."

Override's expression flattened, and she nodded silently in assent.

"We're ready for launch!" Bluestreak called from the maintenance hangar that served as the Velocitronian Autobots' home base. "The space bridge is gonna close in three kliks, so this isn't time for long goodbyes!"

"I'm ready," Roulette said, taking in a gust of wind and filtering through her engines, trying to cool them down.

"Solus watch over you, Roulette. Good luck, and cross the finish line," Override said, releasing Roulette's hands as the shuttle's cockpit closed. Running off the launch pad as the engines fired up, Override took her place next to Bluestreak at the control panel for the launch system up to the last working space bridge over the planet.

"Did you lock onto the planetary destination we saw on the Autobot Ark's system logs?" she asked Bluestreak.

"Yeah, I got it. Last destination was a tiny little organic world on the aft-end of the galaxy. Supposed to be really resource heavy," Bluestreak replied. "If she makes it she'll be all right."

"If she makes it, we may have to follow," Override said, watching as the shuttle righted itself. Shaped like a teardrop with highly aerodynamic x-shaped wings and tail, the ion thrusters of the ship began to glow. The roar of energy flowing through the ships systems was nearly deafening, and the rush of wind was kicking up another one of the planet's famous dust storms.

Bluestreak and Override's vents sealed, with visors and faceplates automatically snapping into place. No Velocitronian lacked these systems; the dust storms would destroy their internal systems in short order without them.

"What'd you say the name of the destination planet in that system was?" Override asked as the shuttle achieved liftoff, sailing high into the orange sky and vanishing against the giant red ember of a setting sun that swallowed the horizon with its mass.

"Earth," Bluestreak replied. "They call it Earth."

* * *

_**Insecticon presents:**_

**BRAT!**

**A Transformers Prime: Invasion Story**

* * *

The powder blue Ultima GTR was gaining speed, and far too quickly. The cars following it were struggling to catch up. They would have had an easier time chasing after the little turnkey supercar if they weren't fighting against each other at the same time.

"Get out of the way, Autobot!" Knock Out snarled, unable to pass the black and yellow mustang in front of him.

A series of whirling beeps and electronic growls was the reply. Bumblebee kept turning in front of the red Aston Martin every time Knock Out tried to pick up speed to pass him.

"Wh- I am **not**_ too slow_!" Knock Out growled in return.

"Move out of the way, prettymech! You're gonna have to learn how to play rough if you wanna be one of us!" Wildrider, Drag Strip and Dead End were catching up fast, hogging the two lane blacktop that seemed to stretch endlessly through the largely empty Nevada desert.

"Move out of the way?!" Knock Out cried, incredulous. "You're driving in both lanes **and** the center, what do you expect me to do, _drive into the dirt_?!"

Mocking female laughter taunted the Decepticon medic. The yellow, red and black striped formula one racer pulled up from behind the red Aston Martin, taking her half of the road out of the middle. "I swear you're such a _femme_ sometimes, Kay-Oh!" Drag Strip shouted. "Get behind me, I'll catch up with our blue friend up in front. You might wanna drop back a few positions, because when my brother and Dead End catch up to Bumblebee, they're gonna splatter that bug all over their windshields!"

"Oh yes, I'd _love_ to drive alongside the slavering addict," Knock Out grumbled to himself, turning into the right lane to let Drag Strip pass him, slowing down a few dozen miles per hour. He watched as the femmebot Stunticon smoothly changed lanes, revving her engines up and passing him effortlessly. Internally he smiled. "At least the view is nice . . ."

"Keep your optics on the road!" Wildrider snarled at Knock Out. "Not on my sister's rear bumper!"

Drag Strip laughed mercilessly, fishtailing in front of Knock Out's grill before blowing past him and shooting beyond Bumblebee, who simply could not keep up.

_Insufferable tease_! Knock Out thought with a grimace. _You can't hide behind your thug of a brother forever! Just _wait_ until you need repairs!_

"I heard you Bee!" Smokescreen called back. "Wheeljack, Shiftlock, we've got Stunticons coming up on us fast. You think you guys can keep 'em busy while I kick it into high gear?"

"We've got you covered kid," Wheeljack radioed ahead. "Besides, Wildrider and I have a little score to settle."

"I can try to block Drag Strip to buy you more time, but you're gonna have to put pedal to floorboard, Smokescreen, she'll outrace me before long. Anything from the blue speeder ahead of us?" Shiftlock asked as she moved into the right lane behind Smokescreen, Wheeljack taking the left, trying to keep Drag Strip from getting ahead.

"Nothing, they're not responding to my communications at all," Smokescreen stated, the needle of his speedometer soaring to the right, 100mph, 110mph, 120mph. "There's no Autobot identifier _or_ Decepticon, but they're giving off Cybertronian EMF and they're running on energon."

...

Back at Autobot headquarters, Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Arcee and the three human children were watching the communications screen, the display showing the moving road, with Autobot and Decepticon insignias clustered along the strip of freeway, moving and mixing among each other. The unknown Cybertronian's ident marker continued to gain speed. Smokescreen, Wheeljack, Bumblebee and Shiftlock's mugshots were in a row at the bottom of the screen, voice signatures and physical status to the side of each. In the command center the rest of the Autobots had gathered, on stand-by, in case they should be needed.

"Think it could be a Neutral?" Arcee asked, arms folded as she watched the screen.

"It's highly irregular behavior for a Neutral. Furthermore, why would a Neutral come to this planet? There's nothing of value here for them. They refused to participate in the Great War or join either side. The ongoing combat between Autobots and Decepticons here should be a repellant to them, not an attractant," Ultra Magnus stated, analyzing the movement patterns on the screen.

"Well, this world does have a lot of Energon. Maybe they're in need of fuel," Jack Darby suggested with a shrug of his shoulders, leaning against the guard rail of the mezzanine he, Miko and Rafael were standing on.

"Well, if they really need fuel, wouldn't they have asked?" Raf questioned back.

"_Or_," Miko added, "Maybe they're just totally crazy."

Ratchet, standing near the ground bridge controls, rubbed his face. "Oh Primus please **no**. We don't need _another one_."

The low, rhythmic thumping in the background was all the reminder anyone needed of whom Ratchet was speaking. Whirl had taken to slamming his head repeatedly into the wall to "relieve pressure on his brain module".

Optimus kept his optics on the screen, listening to the suggestions and tidbits of information being supplied by his team, rolling it around in his mind along with multiple other possibilities. The blue vehicle wasn't trying to attack, and its movements weren't quick and jerky as if it might be afraid. They were steady, but always keeping ahead of the others no matter how much more speed they poured on, almost as if it were pacing itself. . .

"Smokescreen, I want you to get as close as you can to the unknown Cybertronian, and _insult them_," Optimus calmly commanded.

"What?" Smokescreen asked, sounding highly confused. "Insult them? How? What do you want me to say?"

"Call them a 'bot-form'," Optimus responded.

"Bot-form?" Now it was Arcee's turn to be confused. "How is that an insult?"

Ratchet perked up. "You think that vehicle is a _Velocitronian_?"

"We'll know in a moment," Prime replied.

...

Aboard the Nemesis, Megatron stood expectantly behind Soundwave as he and Starscream continued monitoring the situation on the ground.

"Do we have _any_ idea who that Cybertronian is?" he asked over the Decepticon communications network to his team on the ground.

"No, Lord Megatron," Knock Out answered over the channel. "It's not responding to us. Fortunately it doesn't seem to be responding to the _Autobots_ either."

The silver mech glared at the screen for a moment, pondering the situation. The behavior of ground vehicles was something he never bothered with, save tactics on how to destroy them more effectively. He could not, however, shake the feeling that he had seen this sort of driving behavior before.

"Motormaster," he said to the enormous purple, gray and black hulk leaning against the wall nearby. "What do _you_ make of this."

The double-trailered sixteen wheeler stared at the screen and the dots moving along its holographic projection surface.

"Looks like a race," the Stunticon commander absentmindedly said.

"A _race_," Megatron mused, thinking.

"A Cybertronian with no Autobot or Decepticon identifier that's just racing along the ground?" Starscream added, "The only neutral Cybertronians I know of that care that much about racing are those twitchy idiots on-"

"**Velocitron**," Megatron interrupted, coming to the same conclusion. His eyes narrowed. "That had better not be Ransack's way of saying he failed to conquer _my_ colony world. Starscream! Assemble a team of seekers and get the tow cables. The Stunticons aren't going to be able to keep up with a Velocitronian, but I want that neutral captured and brought to the ship as soon as possible. I want to know why it's here on earth."

"What do you mean they can't keep up?!" Motormaster interjected, insulted by the notion that any of his crew couldn't catch up to some pathetic, light-weight little race car.

"Mind your _insolence_, Stunticon," Megatron rasped warningly. "Velocitronians have spent millions of years refining themselves for nothing more than racing. Their entire society is based around speed, and even the slowest of them could outpace a Cybertronian racer. Even a _jet_ might have trouble keeping up with them."

"Which is why we should leave it to the _professionals_," Starscream smugly added with a mien of arrogant pride, needling Motormaster. "Seekers!" he commanded through the console. "Assemble on the flight deck and equip tow cables. We're going hunting!"

...

Smokescreen was topping at a hundred and fifty miles per hour, slowly catching up to the blue Ultima GTR. The yellow body of the formula one was in his rear view mirror, pulling alongside. He had to act quickly.

"HEY BOT-FORM!"

The engine of the powder blue car seemed to howl in pure rage. "_Bot-form_?!" a female voice snarled back at Smokescreen. "_Suck my exhaust Cybertronian!_" The car bolted ahead, soaring past two hundred miles per hour.

"Wow, you have a _real way_ with the ladies, don't you, Smokey-pie?" Drag Strip teased.

"Hey, she talked to me, didn't she?" Smokescreen easily replied, smiling inside. "I'd say I'm doing better than you guys are."

"Too bad you never got to be a racer," Drag Strip purred. "You'd have been _fun_ to play with."

"Aren't you a little, I don't know, _old_ for me?" Smokescreen retorted.

"**Old?!**" Drag Strip snarled. "Get smelted you little gearstick!" She roared ahead of him, chasing after the Ultima.

"Wow, _someone's_ gonna die alone," Shiftlock teased.

"She's a Decepticon, I don't have to be nice to her," Smokescreen said back.

"Remind me to take the kid out sometime and teach him the finer points of dealing with fembots," Wheeljack added.

"And what experience would you have with women, _Captain Loner_?" Smokescreen asked sarcastically, redlining his engine to try to keep Drag Strip and the blue Neutral femme in his line of sight.

"More than you have, _rookie_," Shiftlock chuckled.

Bumblebee's alarmed chirps and whistles erupted into the conversation.

"Oh scrap he's right, they're turning around, everyone LOOK OUT!" The friendly banter abruptly ended as Drag Strip barreled back towards the group in the opposite direction, Smokescreen skidding out of the way to avoid being crashed into. Bumblebee, Shiftlock and Wheeljack drove out into the dirt as Wildrider and Dead End tried to plow into them.

"Sorry Bots, you're cramping our style!" Knock Out called as he zoomed past the dust clouds where all but Smokescreen had run off into the desert sand, transforming as they came to a stop.

Bumblebee watched Knock Out and the Stunticons disappear into the distance, beeping the question on everyone's minds.

"I dunno. But if they're taking off in such a hurry, it can't be a good thing," Shiftlock said.

"_Wheeljack, your squad has incoming_," Ultra Magnus commed from the base some distance away. _"We're detecting Seekers, roughly fifty of them, headed towards your position._"

"Looks like the other half of the party just showed up," Wheeljack said.

Further ahead on the road, still in hot pursuit, Smokescreen was struggling to keep up with the Ultima femme. "If this keeps up my engine's gonna overheat!" he complained to himself.

"_Smokescreen,_" Wheeljack commed, "_We've got seekers coming in, and they might be after you and the Neutral. Stay on her tail as long as you can. We're gonna try to hold 'em off here._"

An signpost over the highway was coming into view just ahead.

"_I'll do my best, Wheeljack, but I just can't keep up with her! I'm pushing it as hard as I can go!_" Smokescreen commed back.

The Ultima suddenly blurred across the pavement in a blinding flash of speed, passing under the signpost; the car's rear swung to the right until she'd completely reversed herself. She transformed, leaping upwards, landing in a crouch, facing the oncoming Autobot as she skidded to a stop.

"HA!" She announced with an air of superiority, hands on her hips. She pointed upwards. "See? I **totally** got to the goal marker before you did! I _won_!"

Smokescreen finally passed under the signpost, sliding sideways to a stop and transforming, staring at the somewhat shorter aqua blue femme in front of him. "Goal marker? What are you talking about?"

The femme folded her arms. "Oh don't try to play coy with me bot-form, that is _clearly _a finish marker for this part of the raceway." She looked up at it. "Display the winner!" she commanded.

The green highway sign continued to display "Jasper, Next Right."

"I said _display_ the winner! What, is that stupid thing broken?!" she said, frowning.

"This isn't a raceway," Smokescreen tried to explain. "Look, there's a whole bunch of Decepticons headed this way and my friends are trying to keep them from getting to us. We need to get out of here."

"Pff. Decepticons are _so_ not my problem. I won the race, that's all that matters," she said. "If they wanna try to beat me they're welcome do it, but I'll just make them suck dust like I did with you."

Smokescreen could not believe his audioceptors. "The Decepticons _are_ going to be your problem when they start shooting at you! Come on, we have to move!" he reached to try to take hold of the femme's arm.

The blue femme hauled off and slapped Smokescreen sharply across the face. "Get your hands off me you rust-brained piece of scrap! I know what you are, you're an Autobot and you're every bit as bad as a Decepticon, so get your hands off me, because I do _not _ need or _want_ your help!"

...

In the Autobot base, Ultra Magnus' mouth drew into a tense, unhappy line, listening into the conversation.

"Wow, and I thought I was bad," Miko muttered under her breath.

"_Ow!_" came Smokescreen's voice over the comm line. "_She hit me!_"

Arcee snorted. "If she thinks she can take care of herself, I say let her."

"Even if she is being difficult, that's no reason to leave her to the Decepticons," Optimus explained. "Ratchet, have a ground bridge ready. We may need to bring her here temporarily."

...

Smokescreen frowned. "Okay, look, this is for your _own good_!" He lunged down and grabbed up the blue femmebot, tossing her halfway over his shoulder. "I got her, Prime, open the ground bridge, quick!" He could see the seekers blackening the sky just behind as they already began opening fire on the other three, who were racing towards Smokescreen's position, dust clouds behind them.

"PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT YOU STUPID JERK!" the femme screamed, _directly_ into Smokescreen's audioceptors.

"Gaaah! Hurry Prime before I go _deaf_!" he shouted into the comm line as she began kicking and hitting him.

"Oh this is just going to be **fun**, isn't it," Ratchet groused, opening the ground bridge.

* * *

**Notes: Roulette is an actual canon character, but I am creating a new take on her for the Aligned/Prime Transformers universe. Shiftlock is my own character. Everything else, Hasbro!**

**Fic inspired by the song "Demon Girlfriend (Kagamine Rin)" by FamiRock Project.**

**Fic takes place after "Masters and Servants".**


	2. Chapter 2

"PUT ME DOWN! I HAVE MY RIGHTS!"

Bumblebee, Wheeljack and Shiftlock sped out of the groundbridge as it closed, all three of them transforming out of vehicle mode, relieved to have escaped the cloud of eradicon Seekers that had been hot on their heels. The spectacle that greeted them as they turned their heads towards the angry screaming caused Shiftlock to raise an eyebrow, Bumblebee to look confused, and Wheeljack to smirk, resisting a laugh.

Ultra Magnus had picked up the small blue Velocitronian fembot by her doorwings, holding her at arm's length from his body as she flailed and shouted, Magnus' stern, unamused expression unchanging.

"Gotta hand it to shoulder pads," Wheeljack said to himself as he walked away from the groundbridge landing area, "he's got more patience than I have."

"Miss, I will put you down only _when_ and _if_ you can behave like a civilized Cybertronian," Ultra Magnus flatly replied.

"I am _not_ a Cybertronian I am a _Velocitronian_," the girl angrily corrected. "And you and your stupid little friend kidnapped me, I don't have to do anything you say!"

"I did _not_ kidnap you!" Smokescreen protested, standing near the squirming girl, but keeping enough distance to prevent himself from getting kicked. Again. "I had to take you with me or the Decepticons would have gotten to you first, and you would _not_ have wanted that to happen."

"I'm not afraid of them," the girl quipped derisively, folding her arms and looking away while dangling from Ultra Magnus' grip. "They couldn't catch me if they tried."

"I hate to break it to you, but the Decepticons are mostly fliers. No matter how fast you are on the ground, a jet is still going to catch up with you," Arcee pointed out.

"That's cheating. If they want to win fair they can't fly," the girl calmly dismissed.

Ratchet just stared. "Unbelievable."

"Unfortunately you are no longer on Velocitron," Optimus Prime said, stepping up towards the little femme. "Megatron and his Decepticons are not going to abide by Velocitron's social order and rule of law."

The fembot frowned and looked at the ground, calming down. She was reminded of her home, her friends, her family, those she may never see again. She wondered if Override, Blurr, Bluestreak and the others had made it off Velocitron in time – or if they had been killed by Ransack, Hightail and Crumplezone. Or worse . . .

That had been the reason she'd been racing, after all, that's what you did when you felt down or worried or scared. You raced to forget all your trouble, to feel the thrill of speed and the wind against your frame, focusing everything into perfect, fluid motion. She wanted to race right away, and not think about her home anymore.

"Well you didn't either!" she said, pointing an accusing digit at Optimus as her speech picked up almost incomprehensible speed. "Don't think we don't remember, you came to our homeworld when things were already bad and tense and then you needed even more of the resources we were barely able to scrape up to get your stupid ship flying again and what did you do you interrupted the Speedia with a FLIER of all things because you were unforgivably rude and then when you left that stupid Megatron guy showed up with his ship and Ransack actually listened to him and started war and it's all your fault why did you EVER come to our planet and ruin everything why couldn't you just let us _die in peace_?!"

"Did anyone understand any of that?" Arcee asked.

Bumblebee shrugged with a low, negative sounding electronic squawk.

Optimus Prime, it seemed, _did _ understand the rapid blast of conversation, and his expression saddened. This didn't go unnoticed by the others, who seemed puzzled that the normally stoic and unflappable Prime would suddenly be affected by the vituperation of a tiny blue femme.

Ratchet, however, had been on the Ark when it landed on Velocitron, and he knew the situation as well as Prime. "Now listen here!" he piped up, walking away from the groundbridge controls to approach the dangling robot girl. "We couldn't have known the situation on your planet when we landed, and furthermore, the decision to help us was made by _your_ planetary leadership! If you have a problem with the decisions they made you should have taken it up with them _when you had the chance_."

The older mech was correct, but the femme didn't want to accept it. She didn't want to deal with her problems – no one on Velocitron really did. Running away from reality was a part of the Velocitronian cultural psyche. She decided to deal with the situation the only way she knew how – by lashing out at anyone that was saying what she didn't want to hear.

"You think anyone's gonna listen to what _I_ have to say? The only people that get listened to are all the OLD BOTS like YOU," she snapped at Ratchet. To dig in further, she added, "I bet you're so old you VENT DUST!"

Ratchet's optics widened and he sputtered in incoherent anger.

Ultra Magnus, holding the femme away from him as if she were the source of a horrible stench, walked towards the maintenance area in the main hangar that composed the Autobot's new base. He reached down to the controls of an overhead crane system used to lift heavy vehicle chassis and engine blocks out of military vehicles.

"H-hey, what do you think you're doing?!" the jittery femme demanded of the unperturbed Ultra Magnus.

"As I said, Miss, when you decide to act like a civilized _Velocitronian_, you will be treated like one," he casually explained. He slid a large metal hook between a pair of armor plates on her back that she could not otherwise reach, and let the crane system haul her up to eye-level, dangling like bait on a fishhook, but otherwise unharmed.

The three human children chuckled among themselves as the aqua and silver fembot flailed and struggled, trying to get down. "This isn't fair!" she whined. "You're all a bunch of monsters!"

"So what are we gonna do with "Miss Personality" over there?" Wheeljack asked. "I'm sure we could just let her scream herself into exhaustion but that's gonna get annoying real fast."

"This situation has _already_ gotten annoying fast," Shiftlock said, folding her arms and watching as the femme struggled uselessly to free herself.

"Optimus, are you all right?" Arcee asked, concerned about Prime and the flicker of sadness across his features.

"Yeah, you look like you've seen a ghost," Jack noted, his expression worried.

Bumblebee's doorwings lowered and Bulkhead, who'd been waiting as backup in case he'd been needed on the field, looked over at the femme, seemingly as remorseful as Prime. Miko and Raf took notice of the sudden change of mood. Ultra Magnus, walking back over to the rest of the group, merely raised a single optic ridge in curiosity.

Ratchet's ire quickly cooled; he took it upon himself to explain the situation to the humans, and those who had not been on the Ark.

"When we were forced to abandon Cybertron aboard our ship, the Ark, we were sucked into one of the last remaining operational space bridges orbiting Cybertron. Megatron and the Nemesis were hot on our trail and trying to board us to destroy us before we could reach the destination. Something on the ground had destabilized the space bridge, and when both we and the Nemesis hit the portal, it split us apart and sent us into deep space. The Matrix began to guide us towards one of the original colony worlds of Cybertron while we looked for the Allspark."

"During the Golden Age, when space bridge technology was developed and in wide use, many Cybertronians of different kinds set out on colony ships to new worlds – Velocitron being one of them. The use of the space bridges caused a decrease in planetary energon supplies, among other problems. Eventually the space bridges were abandoned and forgotten, and the colony worlds that had been on the other sides of those bridges were cut off from Cybertron, forgotten as well. By the time the Great War started, knowledge of the colony worlds was limited and they were thought of more as myth than fact."

"There had been a Decepticon saboteur aboard the Ark, and due to an explosion aboard the ship, we were losing energon quickly. We were lucky to make it to Velocitron, but when we arrived looking for help, we found that the population looked to us as potential rescuers," Ratchet said sadly, shaking his head and closing his optics.

"Rescuers? Why?" Rafael asked.

"Velocitron's sun was gonna go nova in a few thousand years," Bulkhead explained.

"A few thousand years? Isn't that plenty of time to pack up and move away?" Miko asked, not quite getting the seriousness of the situation.

"Not when you don't have the technology to build a ship, or the resources to do it," Bulkhead explained. "We live a really long time, Miko. Millions of your years. A thousand years may seem like a really long time to a human, but for us . . . it would be like finding out your whole civilization, everything you knew and loved, was gonna burn up in a few months, and there wasn't anything you could to do stop it."

"That's horrible," Jack said quietly, looking over at the blue femme. She was suddenly quiet, no longer struggling, yelling or insulting, but gazing at the floor. Jack could have sworn she looked depressed. He could understand why.

"What's worse is that Megatron was following us," Ratchet continued. "We tried to warn the planet's leadership but the whole world seemed to be _obsessed_ with racing. The entire planet was nearly covered in raceways and it was next to impossible to get anyone to stop and talk like a normal, rational being. There were already tensions building between Velocitron's two leaders, and with resources as short as they were, a conflict almost seemed inevitable. Optimus tried to reason with them. We . . . did the best we could."

Ultra Magnus frowned. "You said there was a _saboteur_ among the Autobots present on the Ark? Was the culprit identified?"

"Yes," Ratched said. "A shapeshifter."

Miko's eyes widened. "Was that the same guy who tried to copy Wheeljack?!"

"Yeah," Bulkhead said, scowling. "Makeshift."

"He's pushin' up lugnuts now," Wheeljack said somewhat smugly.

Optimus Prime moved away from the group and walked towards the now quiet Velocitronian.

"So the colony worlds actually exist," Arcee said thoughtfully. "That's actually good to know. There may be more of us out there, somewhere."

"Indeed," Ultra Magnus added. "Unfortunately without a working space bridge and the coordinates to the colonies, it would still take an inordinately long time to reach any of them, energon cost in fuel not withstanding."

"The technology exists, at the very least, even if it would take time to build one for ourselves," Shiftlock said.

"Yes, but the logistics of trying to move an entire planetary population of Cybertronians to Earth is a nightmare to contemplate," Ratchet said sourly. "We have a hard enough time keeping Bumblebee off the public radar, having several thousand race-happy Velocitronians show up would _definitely_ blow our cover. Not to mention that some of them decided to follow in Megatron's footsteps."

"Sending them to Cybertron is out of the question, too," Arcee added, brows furrowed in thought, her arms folded as she shifted her weight to her right leg. "Energon's tough to find, and the planet is crawling with Insecticons thanks to Shockwave."

"But we can't just let them die!" Smokescreen protested, piping up. "There's gotta be **something** we can do for them. I mean, _she_ made it here somehow, so there's gotta be _some_ hope."

"And that is the question, isn't it?" Ultra Magnus asked, looking back over at the girl. "How _did_ she get here?"

"What is your name?" Optimus Prime asked in a gentle tone, standing in front of the Velocitronian.

"Roulette," she glumly replied, looking up at him. The fiery bravado in her had burned itself out, leaving behind the charred remains of a life without hope of a future.

"Roulette, I'm sorry for what happened to your world. We never meant to bring our war to your planet," Optimus said.

"It doesn't matter," Roulette said, defeat in her voice. "Nothing you could have done would have mattered. We're all gonna die sometime, either when the sun goes nova, when we run out of energon, or when the Star Seekers come back."

Optimus' brows drew together in an expression of concern. "Star Seekers?"

"Pirates," Roulette explained. "They came to Velocitron, looking for Cybertronians. Override told their leader, Thundertron, that we were all Velocitronians, but that stupid creep Ransack said Override was one!" She looked up at Prime. "That's when the war really started, and when things got worse."

Optimus took this in, puzzling over it. The silence among his team told him that no one else had heard of the Star Seekers either – not even Ultra Magnus and Wheeljack, who had spent time in space looking for other Autobots.

"Can I get down now, please? I promise I won't hit anyone," Roulette asked.

"Of course," Optimus said, reaching up to unhook Roulette and set her on her feet. "Ratchet, call Whirl, Rad and Jackpot into the command center. We need an immediate debriefing." Looking back to Roulette, he got down on one knee to bring himself down to her height, so as not to be so imposing. "Roulette," he asked gently, "When the others get here, I would like you to tell us all how you came to Earth, and what's happened on your homeworld."

* * *

**I am now keeping a list of episodes/stories in my profile, along with the order in which they should appear, and previews for new ones. Brat and Masters and Servants are going to be episodes in an ongoing 'Season 4' of Transformers Prime I'm writing called, collectively, 'Invasion'. Enjoy!**


	3. Chapter 3

Roulette took her place on the floor, on a makeshift bench, in the middle of the command center's floor. The other Autobots had gathered under Prime's orders. The three children had been joined by June Darby, who had come to pick up Jack, but decided to stay, calling Miko and Raf's parents to inform them about a "study group" she would be hosting for a few hours. She'd brought pizza, feeling that it was going to be another one of those nights.

Ratchet finished his assessment of Roulette. "She's in optimal condition and passes quarantine," he announced. "Apart from a need for refueling and recharge in a few hours, Roulette is perfectly fine."

Roulette was slumped over on the bench, still looking as if she was bearing the weight of the world on her shoulders. "Thank you," she said quietly.

"Whenever you're ready," Optimus Prime said, as all optics were on the little Velocitronian femme. "I must ask that you try to speak slowly and clearly. I know it must be uncomfortable for you, but not all of us can process your normal rate of speech."

"Yeah," Roulette said with a faint smile and a small chuckle. "You guys _are_ kinda slow-mo." With a deep intake of air, she looked around at those present, and began.

"Okay first of all, some of you guys I recognize from when you landed on Velocitron in the Ark, but some of you are like, totally new to me. Raise your servos if you have like no no clue about Velocitron."

The Autobots looked among themselves; Arcee, Smokescreen, Jackpot, Wheeljack and Shiftlock raised their hands.

Miko raised her hand first; sheepishly Raf followed, then Jack, and finally June.

"When did another Autobot arrive?" June whispered to her son.

"That's not really an Autobot, Mom," Jack whispered back.

June was immediately surprised. "She isn't _acting_ like a Decepticon."

"She's not a Decepticon either. Apparently she's not even from Cybertron. She's from somewhere else called Velocitron," Jack explained back quietly.

June blinked, seemingly puzzled. "Well, I guess that's why we're raising our hands," she murmured.

"Okay so that's like, almost half of you, and some of you were not here for the old Doctor bot's infodump," Roulette noted.

Ratchet scowled. "The name is _Ratchet_, young lady. Not 'Doctor Bot', not 'Old bot' – **Ratchet**."

She vented indignantly at being interrupted, a little arrogance creeping back in, giving Ratchet a dirty look. "_Fine_," she retorted. "Can you not, like, interrupt me, _Ratchet_?"

June frowned as the children sat down and opened one of the pizzas, looking down at what was going on below. "Someone did _not_ teach her manners," she murmured disapprovingly.

"Yeah, she's kind of a brat," Miko agreed.

Ultra Magnus cleared his vocoder and looked straight at Roulette. He tapped a lifting hook against one hand.

Roulette immediately straightened up and dropped the attitude.

Raf tried not to chuckle. "She may not be one for long with Ultra Magnus around. He's as strict as my mom."

"Y-yeah, like I was gonna say," Roulette continued, "Basically Velocitron was once a colony of Cybertron during the Golden Age, when the space bridges were used all the time. Then one day, it's like Cybertron just disappeared off the face of the universe, because the space bridges stopped working. No more supplies or trade ships ever came back. We thought something happened that destroyed you all and we were all that was left, so we tried to go on with our lives. After all that time, only a few of the elder 'bots like Hightail even remembered anything about Cybertron. You guys were just a myth to us, at least, until the Ark showed up with Optimus Prime and some of the other 'bots that are still here."

She looked up to Optimus. "What happened to the rest of the crew? I mean, I remember Prowl, Ironhide, and Jazz, Sideswipe and Silverbolt." She stopped and looked concerned. "Did they . . . go offline?"

Shiftlock looked suddenly crestfallen.

"We were forced to separate the Ark into smaller ships to avoid the Nemesis as we continued to search for the Allspark," Optimus Prime explained. "While I do not know what became of the others that were scattered across space, I do not believe they have perished."

Whirl uncharacteristically nudged one of his claws against Shiftlock's hand; she glanced over at him, surprised, but saying nothing. He simply nodded his head, conveying through his EMF consolation and support.

Shiftlock took the claw in her hand, holding it, and smiled faintly.

Optimus Prime's information earned sympathy from Roulette. She began to see him as something other than a towering, passionless ideologue spreading war and conflict across the galaxy - she began to see him as another bot like herself, someone who was also well acquainted with worry, loss, holding on to slivers of hope. There was a subtle change of expression that flickered across her face, her optics, noticeable to him and to some of the more observant members of Team Prime. A bridge of understanding was being made.

"Where are Clocker and Mainspring?" Roulette questioned expectantly, searching Prime's optics.

Prime's lips pulled into a warm smile. "They're not here, but they're very much alive. They're travelling across the galaxy now, after reuniting with the rest of themselves."

"The rest of themselves?" Roulette asked, puzzled.

"They were part of a group of combiners. The _first_ combiners," Ratchet explained.

"Wait, _what_?" interjected Rad. "Are you saying that you met _Nexus Prime_?" His questioning was thick with disbelief.

Bumblebee replied with excited beeps and buzzes.

"_And you found the tomb of Solus Prime?!"_ Rad blurted out. He was dumbfounded by the news, but he knew Prime and Ratchet were no liars. Especially not Ratchet - the old bot had always dismissed the stories of the Thirteen as religious nonsense. To see Ratchet confess to having met one of the Thirteen . . .

"No one tell him he's standing on Unicron's body shell," Arcee mused.

Rad screamed like a girl and jumped up onto a transformer-sized bench.

"Unicron is no longer a threat," Optimus said, reassuring the red scientist. "At ease, Rad."

"I miss all the fun," Smokescreen grumbled to himself.

"If you can call fighting Unicron _fun_," Arcee retorted, overhearing the comment.

"I'm just glad they're safe," Roulette said, relieved. She vented a deep breath and prepared to continue. "Okay, so, the leadership on Velocitron is chosen by our yearly Speedia race. The two fastest bots become the Leader and Second in Command, and every four years or so the Speedia is run to see if that changes. For as long as I can remember, Override has been our leader, and Ransack was Second. Ransack never liked it because he thought he would be a better leader than Override. Things were getting worse with our sun and resources were getting shorter, and we all kinda knew something was gonna happen sooner or later. When you guys landed with the Ark, it just sorta set things in motion. By the time you guys left, Ransack made his move and the first shots were fired."

"I remember," Optimus said sadly. "I did not want to leave Velocitron under such circumstances, but we feared Megatron would get to the Allspark before us if we did not continue our search. I believed that Override would know how best to handle Ransack and his followers."

"Did you get our transmission?" Roulette asked.

"We did," Optimus replied. "We wanted to return, but we were unable. In the struggle for the Allspark, our ship was badly damaged. Our only hope for survival was to separate the Ark into smaller working vessels. The crew was scattered. Some of us made it to Earth. I have since sent out a call to all Autobots across the galaxy to join us here. With time and with luck, we will be reunited soon."

"It might have been a good thing you guys didn't come back, because the Star Seekers landed a couple of cycles after you guys did, and I think they were looking for you," Roulette said.

"Who are the Star Seekers?" Ultra Magnus asked.

"Pirates, like I said before," Roulette explained, her countenance full of earnest concern. "They were in this huge black ship and when it landed, the big guy that was their leader said he was looking for Cybertronians. He said he wanted revenge on them."

Optimus Prime frowned in thought. "Did he say why?"

Roulette shook her head negatively. "No. Override told him there were no Cybertronians, that we were all Velocitronians, but then Ransack said she was lying, that she was one. She denied it but asked what was wrong with being one. Then all Pit broke loose, and everyone started fighting." Her wheelwings lowered and she looked down, ashamed. "I was just scared, so I hid in the maintenance hangar until all the fighting stopped. There was a lot of shouting and then the Star Seekers left. When they did, some of us on both sides were missing. We think the pirates took them."

"I am sorry," Optimus Prime said softly, comforting Roulette with a hand on her shoulder. "If we can find a way to get them back, we will. Was that all that happened?"

"No. Megatron showed up. I wasn't there when he landed but I found out later what happened. Override told me he stirred up Ransack even more, and that Ransack and his followers were pledging themselves as Decepticons, and were going to take over Velocitron for Megatron. He didn't stay long because he was looking for you and the Ark," Roulette continued to explain. "After that it was just... fighting, all the time. We don't even think about racing much anymore, and there's less and less energon now that the war started, and fewer parts and resources. Ransack . . . he really did do what he said he was going to do. When he catches one of us, he drains our energon and disassembles us for spare parts."

The reaction from the Autobots was largely the same: murmurs of shock and disgust. Ultra Magnus' expression tightened unpleasantly in a hard scowl. "Barbaric," Ratchet whispered.

"There are less and less of us on both sides, and the sun is getting worse. The electromagnetic pulses that scramble all our communication arrays are getting more frequent. Bluestreak says there's less time than we thought, which is why he was working so hard to make the shuttle. Override sent me to find you, find a way to get more resources or help so we can get off Velocitron. She picked me because I was the youngest of all of us. Ransack's mechs are grabbing the youngest first, because our parts have less wear."

"I don't know if I can eat now," Miko said, staring at the remnants of her pizza slice. Raphael, Jack and June continued to listen, feeling pity for Roulette despite the femme's bad attitude.

"Things are worse than I imagined," Optimus said, standing. "Something must be done."

"Do you have any idea how long you have been on this planet, Roulette?" Ultra Magnus asked.

"Can't be more than a couple of breems," Roulette explained. "When I landed, I got out of the shuttle and went to find a native vehicle to scan so I could hide. There was a race track not too far away so I just scanned the winner."

"So let me get this straight, you had a working transport shuttle and you just _left it out in the open_?" Rad asked Roulette, incredulous.

"Well... yeah," Roulette blinked, taken aback at Rad's incredulity. "I mean, it's just a shuttle and I needed to turn my wheels. What's wrong?"

"The problem is that the Decepticons could acquire your shuttle and the transportation data on it," Ultra Magnus pointed out. "That would allow them to access Velocitron using their space bridge."

"That's a good thing!" Roulette shouted excitedly. "Then we can get everyone off the planet before the nova happens!"

"No, that's _not_ a good thing," Ratchet countered. "The Decepticons aren't going to help Override and your friends. It's likely he would only allow Ransack and the other Velocitronian Decepticons to escape - if even that - and simply leave Override and the others to their fate. Or worse."

Roulette's joy evaporated like rain off hot pavement, her hands drawing down and closer to her torso. "No," she whispered in denial. "They can't be that cruel... can they?"

"Hate to break it to you sweetspark, but Megatron was willing to poison Cybertron to the core to try to win," Wheeljack interjected. "There's nothing he won't do if it suits his plans."

Roulette's head and shoulders drooped. "Then I've done a terrible thing. I've doomed my friends," she lamented.

"There may be hope yet," Optimus Prime offered. "Roulette, do you think you can still locate your ship if we return to the area you were last in?"

Roulette's plates perked upwards as she lifted her head, optics full of hope. "Y-yes! I think I can!"

"Then if we hurry, we can recover your ship before the Decepticons can," Prime stated.

"I'll go with her, Prime," Smokescreen offered. "We're both fast on our wheels and if something goes wrong I can get her out of trouble."

Roulette was a loss as she stared at Smokescreen, surprised that he'd volunteered to help her, even after she'd been less than pleasant to him, to put it mildly. "Really?" she asked. "You'd . . . you'd actually help me after I hit you and stuff?"

"Sure," Smokescreen shrugged, smiling. "I'm an Autobot. Helping people is what I do."

Roulette was seeing Smokescreen in a new light. She felt a little guilty about being so snide to him-

"Besides, you don't really hit all that hard," Smokescreen added with a chuckle and a shrug of the shoulders.

"What." Roulette fumed, staring at Smokescreen.

"Er, well, you weren't really putting your whole force into it and all!" Smokescreen stammered, raising his hands defensively.

"Smokescreen, your idea has merit. I want you and Roulette to locate her shuttle and send us the coordinates of its location. Once we have it marked, we can move it to the base and out of Decepticon reach," Prime said, mercifully interrupting what could be another Roulette tantrum.

The Lotus Exige vented a sigh of relief. "Sure thing Prime." He extended a hand to Roulette. "Shall we get going?" he asked, trying his best to be charming in hopes she'd calm down.

Grudgingly Roulette accepted Smokescreen's hand as he helped her up. "Fine," she sniffed, wearing her offense like a neon overcoat. "Just try to keep up with me, _okay_?"

"Kids," Ratchet muttered, going to the groundbridge controls.

...

"Commander Starscream, we've detected another ground bridge opening. It's not far from where the Autobots were last seen," a Vehicon grunt reported, looking away from the monitor.

"Excellent. Redirect the armada to the new location," the silver jet commanded. Starscream folded his arms behind his back, contemplating the display on the screen. "Good thing, too," he muttered under his breath. "After the Autobot and the Neutral escaped last time I thought Megatron was going to tear off my wings and mount them to the wall."

Soundwave wordlessly alerted Starscream to his own station.

"An unidentified spacecraft not far from the ground bridge?" the second in command asked. "Probably the neutral's ship. Let's salvage it, shall we? Even if we can't catch that insufferable Velocitronian female, the information aboard her ship will do nicely," he grinned.


End file.
